Who uses early childhood education and care services? Comparing socioeconomic selection across five western policy contexts
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International journal of child care and education policy ; vol. 11.Publisher(s)
SpringerOpenAuthor(s)
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Abstract(s)
Growing evidence suggests that children’s participation in early childhood education
and care (ECEC), especially center-based services, is associated with positive outcomes,
particularly for children over one year of age and children of low socioeconomic backgrounds.
This signals an important opportunity for reducing socioeconomic disparities
in young children’s development. Many western countries have adopted policies to
encourage maternal employment, facilitate ECEC service use, or both, often focusing
on disadvantaged families. Yet few studies to date have tested the impact of these
policies for reducing socioeconomic selection into ECEC. This study integrates data
from five cohorts of children living in different western, high-income countries (UK,
USA, Netherlands, Canada, and Norway; total N = 21,437). We compare participation
rates and socioeconomic selection into ECEC across the different policy contexts in
infancy (5–9 months) and early childhood (36–41 months). Policy environments where
parents had access to at least 6 months of paid maternity/parental leave had lower
ECEC participation in infancy but higher participation in early childhood. Higher participation
rates were also associated with universal ECEC subsidies (i.e., not targeted to
low-income families). In general, low income, low maternal education and having more
than one child were associated with reduced use of ECEC. Selection effects related to
low income and number of children were reduced in countries with universal ECEC
subsidies when out-of-pocket fees were income-adjusted or reduced for subsequent
children, respectively. Most socioeconomic selection effects were reduced in Norway,
the only country to invest more than 1% of its GDP into early childhood. Nevertheless,
low maternal education was consistently associated with reduced use of ECEC services
across all countries. Among families using services however, there were few selection
effects for the type of ECEC setting (center-based vs. non-center-based), particularly in
early childhood. In sum, this comparative study suggests wide variations in ECEC participation
that can be linked to the policy context, and highlights key policy elements
which may reduce socioeconomic disparities in ECEC use.
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